Global Fire

South African author Michael Schmidt on the global impact of revolutionary anarchism

Join us for an exploration of the global history and impact of anarchist and syndicalist ideas and strategies with international author Michael Schmidt!

GLOBAL FIRE

South African author Michael Schmidt on the global impact of revolutionary anarchism

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

6.30pm

Join us for an exploration of the global history and impact of anarchist and syndicalist ideas and strategies with international author Michael Schmidt!

Michael Schmidt is an investigative journalist, an anarchist theorist and a radical historian based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been an active participant in the international anarchist milieu, including the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (http://zabalaza.net/). His major works include ‘Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism (2013, AK Press) and, with Lucien van der Walt, ‘Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism’ (2009, AK Press). The sequel to Black Flame, 'Global Fire: 150 Fighting Years of International Anarchism and Syndicalism', will be released by AK Press in 2015.

‘Revolutionary anarchism gained a foothold in the daily lives of the popular classes 15 decades ago in the heart of the industrialised world – but also, crucially, in the colonial and post-colonial worlds where it offered the oppressed a practical set of tools with which they could challenge the tiny, heavily armed, parasitic elites. Anarchism provided the most devastating and comprehensive critique of capitalism, landlordism, the state, and power relations in general, whether based on gender, race, or other forms of oppression and exploitation. But it went far beyond that: African historian Michael Schmidt examines the anarchist practice of running cities in Spain during the Cantonalist Revolt of 1873-1874, their control of the city of Guangzhou in China over 1921-1923, of the two-million-strong Shinmin free zone in Manchuria of 1929-1931, the anarchist-influenced free zone in Nicaragua in 1927-1933, the better-known territorial control exercised in parts of Mexico, Ukraine, and Spain, and their involvement in the Iranian Revolution of 1978. These and other examples show that far from eschewing the exercise of power, anarchists actively decentralised power into the hands of the popular classes, a “counter-power” enlivened by working class counter-culture.’
There will be a Q&A and facilitated discussion after the talk.

This event is a joint initiative of Anarchist Affinity and the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group.

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As many of you know, Jack 'The Anarchist' Grancharoff died on the 15th of May, at his home in Quaama, South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, aged 91. He died 'with his boots on' - he seemed to have risen from a chair, with an open book and a glass of something interesting on the table, collapsed onto the floor and was found a day or two later.

The 4th annual Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair is an opportunity for all people to read, listen, discuss, share skills and knowledge workshops and talks, socialise and partake in a diverse range of activities around political, cultural, environmental and social justice issues. The bookfair, part of a global network of around 100 bookfairs, is a free event held annually at the Abbotsford Convent (St Heliers Street, Abbotsford). In 2014, it will take place from 10am-6pm on Saturday the 9th of August.

The Anarchist Melbourne Bookfair will be a free event held at Abbotsford Convent (St Heliers Street, Abbotsford) from 10am-6pm on Saturday 4th of August. The bookfair consists of up to 40 stalls of independent book-sellers and activist groups. Alongside the stalls there will be about 21 one-hour workshops running all day on all kinds of anarchist and direct action topics.

Only the working class can solve the burning issues of our time, and we can only do it through organisation in the workplace and the community. We will build a society of liberty, equality and solidarity, but we will do it without Parliaments and other top-down bodies. We will do it through a world-wide workers' revolution.

The labour movement in Melbourne, though far declined from its former strength, has neither totally given up the ghost nor been allowed quarter by its enemies. Unions campaign for health and safety, against insecure work and against the use of temporary work visas to undermine labour standards. The campaigns, though, are undermined by the conservatism and timidity of the union officials, their support for the Labor Party and their nationalist focus on “Aussie jobs”, which interferes with building the necessary solidarity between local workers and super-exploited migrant workers. Meanwhile, the capitalists are proceeding with legislation to destroy the construction workers' union (CFMEU) and bring the entire union movement under close State supervision.

The first task of any small political group is to understand the situation in which they seek to operate. Understanding the economic, political and social situation in a given society shows a political group the way forward; it allows us to identify what opportunities exist, what challenges we are likely to encounter, and what our capacity is likely to be in responding to these.

During the famous Philippine revolution against Spain there were prominent intellectuals and key persons to the revolution who were briefly influenced by the anarchists in the west. Recently, there was an anarchist network organised in the big area of Manila

As many of you know, Jack 'The Anarchist' Grancharoff died on the 15th of May, at his home in Quaama, South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, aged 91. He died 'with his boots on' - he seemed to have risen from a chair, with an open book and a glass of something interesting on the table, collapsed onto the floor and was found a day or two later.

The 4th annual Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair is an opportunity for all people to read, listen, discuss, share skills and knowledge workshops and talks, socialise and partake in a diverse range of activities around political, cultural, environmental and social justice issues. The bookfair, part of a global network of around 100 bookfairs, is a free event held annually at the Abbotsford Convent (St Heliers Street, Abbotsford). In 2014, it will take place from 10am-6pm on Saturday the 9th of August.

The Anarchist Melbourne Bookfair will be a free event held at Abbotsford Convent (St Heliers Street, Abbotsford) from 10am-6pm on Saturday 4th of August. The bookfair consists of up to 40 stalls of independent book-sellers and activist groups. Alongside the stalls there will be about 21 one-hour workshops running all day on all kinds of anarchist and direct action topics.